Monday, April 07, 2008

Year one of the Jack Johnson era in LA didn't go so good. His 11 points on the season placed him in around 9th place among rookie blueliners. That places him only 6 points above Tim Conboy. And Johnson played in 55 more games that the slightly psycho Conboy. Jack led all rookie defensemen in penalty minutes and had the worst +/- among rookies at -19.

The Canes acquired Timmayy Gleason and Eric (hardly knew ye) Belanger for Johnson and Oleg the human traffic cone Tverdovsky. Johnson logged more ice time and more PP time than Gleason this season. Johnson had around a 200 minute advantage in total ice time over Gleason. Jack played around 185 of his 1,600 minutes of ice time killing penalties. Gleason spent 239 of his 1,400 minutes of ice time ice killing penalties. That's around 27 addition pks for our boy. Gleason logged 19 points and was a +5 in a stopper role. As noted above, Johnson scored 11 points as a puck-moving and aggressive defenseman.

Next season might be the breakout year for Jack Johnson. Blueliners take longer to develop ya know. Yeaahhh well....Tobias Enstrom of the ATL and Tom Gilbert of Edmonton didn't seem to struggle all that much. JR's genius remains intact.

I think Letowski became a keeper late in the season. I'm on the fence about Ruutu (scattered), Hamilton (inconsistent) and Brookbank (limited role). I wouldn't be upset to see Wesley return for another year, but I seriously doubt that will happen. Losing both him and Hedican will have a big impact on the locker room and there's a lot to be said for off-ice leadership. Anyway.